Tag: niche ideas

Niche Blogging Case Study: Can You STILL Rank On Google?
When you talk about make money blogging, one of the fastest way is to build a niche blog. Yes, there’s no denial in this.

You can still make money from affiliate sales from your main website but you want the type of fast churn and turn, running a niche blog could probably be the best bet.

There are some serious advantages of niche blogging and here are a few:
- Building a niche blog is easy (and fast)
- Finding one good niche and then blast the way out
- Compared to running a main website, you don’t need much authority to earn your first dollar
When I published my previous article, Finding Profitable Niche Ideas, I received quite a few private messages and emails asking if I could show a step by step guide.

And I thought, “Hey, why don’t I start a niche blog instead as a case study?”

For starters, I have gave up niche blogging last year due to time constrain. However, I (basically) took the liberty to create this case study and ultimately, you can use them to start one or more niche blogs.

What you will learn here (and coming articles):
1. How to find a good niche
2. What is the definition of a good blogging niche
3. How to create a GREAT blogging niche
4. How to monetize a niche blog
And yes, I’ll show you the exact steps I took to create this blog from scratch.

Tools I will be using:
- Google search
- Google Keyword Planner
- Long Tail Pro (try it for free plus $20 off if you buy it from me)
- Clickbank (website)
- Amazon (website)
- Keyword monitoring tool (my personal favorite – SerpBook)
Finding the right niche ideas

Here’s an important disclaimer. It is super tough to find a good niche for blogging. There are too many competitions and Google is definitely not fond of those thin sites.

On top of that, competing with big guns such as eBay, Wikipedia and Amazon could be a nut job.

The goal before even starting up a niche blog is to find a profitable niche to blog. There is absolutely zero reason to start a niche blog, ranking on #1 of Google with nothing to sell.

The choice of monetization methods are:
- Google Adsense
- Affiliate sales
- Ad space (when the traffic hits 1,000 a day)
Placing Google Adsense banner is pretty clear cut but for affiliate sales, it is a whole different story. Choosing the right product to market is important for any niche blogging.

If you are selling a product, here are some quick guidelines:
- Earns at least $10 per sale or recurring (I love recurring)
- Cost per click of around $1
My personal way of finding a good blogging niche is by soul searching; asking myself what I love most etc. If you are a beginner or needed some guidance, here are some quick but effective ways to find a good niche.

Using Amazon and Clickbank for keyword ideas

Check on the top sellers (I prefer top 100) and select the a product to market.

Let’s say the product is a Genesis Framework (click here to join Genesis Framework affiliate and earn up to 33% per sale). The niche you are looking for would probably be WordPress themes or premium themes for bloggers.

The second step is to find 2 to 5 related products which are highly recommended or compared by Google. On Google search bar, type in “Genesis Framework vs” and you will see a list of suggestions.

The suggestions that are provided are the most popular search topics used by us. Yes, human!

As you can see above, these would be great blogging ideas you can use when you start the blog. Of course, applying for the affiliate sales in advance (or as soon as possible) is a good move to ensure that there isn’t much wait time or time lost during the application period.

Checking the niche for profitability and chance of ranking

Niche blogging is all about make money fast and therefore, profitability and chance of ranking is more than just important.

For starters, you may use Google Keyword Planner to find a list of related keywords. Jot them down or list them down in an excel form. Keep in mind the important part are number of exact search per month and cost per click.

What I doesn’t like about Google Keyword Planner is that it doesn’t give competition analysis; the chance of ranking on search engines.

This is why I recommend bloggers to use Long Tail Pro. Long Tail Pro does the same job as Google Keyword Planner in terms of keyword research and on top of that, providing a chance of ranking that particular keyword.

I have selected the main keyword that has 3 words, 1,000 exact mach search per month and 2 other related keywords with moderate and low search values. The CPC value is roughly $1.34.

In terms of chance of ranking, Long Tail Pro provides a detailed ranking value of the top 10 results on Google as seen below.

Some criteria I usually look for are:
- Page Authority under 50
- Number of links are under 30
- The value of the backlinks on that page is under 10
- Domain authority as low as possible (recommended: Under 50)
- MozRank under 5
- PageRank as low as possible (I don’t really bother this)
- Site age as low as possible
Also, the ‘criteria’ are just my own. You could easily reduce or increase the number depending on the strength of the site.

Choosing a higher value will lead to more competition in niche blogging while lower ones would usually lead to lesser income.

Note: I’m definitely not out of my mind to be trying to rank a keyword which has 7 competitors (out of 10) having above score 80 in Domain Authority.

But why?

Take a look at the Juice Page Link and Page Links. The lower numbers show either these sites are ranking well due to the authority level of the root domains. Indirectly, they are enjoying the PageRank and authority flow.

Therefore, if you have a brand new domain with top notch article, you have a very real chance of ranking.

Literally speaking.

Searching for an exact match .com domain

This is important. I prefer to go for .com than any other TLDs. However, if .com is taken, you can also consider .net or .org (expired domains are good too).

Choosing an exact match domain is extremely important (even though Google say it isn’t) and just in case that domain isn’t available, you can opt for alternatives such as “keyword + addon” or “addon + keyword”.

In this case, addon are words like top, best, recommended, for boys, for girls etc.

Good news for you, Long Tail Pro (again) helps you to find available domains too. Guess that’s why I’m giving so much love to it right?

Try Long Tail Pro for 7-days FREE and on top of that, $20 off too! Try it NOW!

For niche blogging, most of my domains come from GoDaddy as it is probably the cheapest. Click on this link to buy a domain and use promo code “199scott” to get a special offer of $1.99 per domain.

The domain wouldn’t take long to kick into action and once it is ready, hook it up with your current hosting.

If you’re looking for a cheap but unlimited hosting service, you can try this one: Host With Me, which is a premium hosting managed by me. Alternatively, you can opt for premium hosting (if you are dead serious in this particular niche) like such as WP Engine.

Setting up the niche blog

This is rather simple. All you need to do are:
- Find a good theme (I personally recommend Genesis child themes as they are HTML5 and SEO ready)
- Prepare a good homepage with sidebars enabled
- Advertisement banners (Google Adsense)
- Pages such as ‘about me’ and ‘privacy’
Lastly, fire up your best post. Yup, kick start your post with a great article. My first post was around 2,000 words. Yes, hand written and zero copy paste.

Do you remember the earlier keywords recommended by Google? This is the time to use them.

Each post should have:
- 1 main keyword
- 2 to 5 secondary keywords
- Density of each keywords do not exceed 3%
- Each article should be at least 1,000 words
- Images, video and any visual effect are extremely important (keywords to be used on alt tags)
- Various heading tags (H1 to H3)
- Bold, italic and underline
- Permalink should either be /%sample-post%/ or /%category%/%postname%/ (I prefer the first one as it is shorter)
Disclaimer: You do not need to publish like 10 posts a day. One a day or even one a week is absolutely fine.

Results of my niche blogging case study after 48 hours

Drum roll please!

…

…

…

I started the niche blogging case study on 26th May 2014. Just for the record, I have did absolutely ZERO link building and even social media.

One post was published on the same day itself and another on 28th May 2014. And guessed what? The first post keyword has already ranked 34th on Google today.

Here are the stats as of today on Google:

Main keyword – 65th

Secondary keywords A – 26th

Secondary keywords B – 36th

Secondary keywords C – 38th

Secondary keywords D – 43th

Secondary keywords E – 43th

Here’s what it looks like for proof:

I don’t know you but I think this is explosive! Without doing anything, I’m already ranking 65th for my main keyword and even hitting the 26th spot with one of my secondary keyword.

Not bad for a day right?

Are you digging for more? Yes, more niche blogging results (and tutorials) to come, I promise!

This doesn’t stop here. I’m pumped to see how far I would go without any link building. I’m planning to start link building on my niche blogging case study only after week or so.

And I’m not going to keep you in the dark. I’ll post my updates on this and keep you informed of everything I had done so that you can use them immediately.

Want to stay tune to this niche blogging case study? Signup for my newsletter below!
February 19, 2024
Lesson 3: How To Find Profitable Niche Ideas For Blogging
Raise your hand if you have gone through this – Performed keyword research, found a profitable niche and starting a blog with that niche topic just to realize that after 3 months of hard work, you are no where near success.

You have carefully crafted the best blog posts (ever) but yet, the blog barely able to attract 1,000 or maybe even 100 traffic a day.

Demotivated, despair, frustrated and tired, you decided to quit that niche.

Without knowing, you started over a dozen blogs and yet, you are earning pennies.

And one day, you call it quit.

You join the thousands who started blogging with the hopes of making money only to discover the ugly truth in blogging; it is harder to make money online that you can ever image.

I bet the above sounds familiar. I’ve been there myself; failing over a dozen times and making pennies from my blog. Lucky for me, I learned my lessons.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no millionaire. I’m just an average dude who learned from my mistakes and makes enough to sustain a good life with my blog.

The lesson that you’ll learn today on Blogging University is how to start a blog. To be exact, how to start a successful niche blog, minus the failures.

For those who believe that niche blogging is dead, they’re extremely wrong. It’s just harder to earn money even if you’ve found a profitable niche idea.

Putting aside all those negativity, let’s kick start our lesson plan for the day and the biggest question to you is “Are you ready to make some serious money from blogging?”

What you will learn in this blogging lesson?
- What is the definition of a profitable niche?
- How to find profitable niche ideas?
- How to monetize a blog with specific niche?
The definition of profitable niche ideas

Blogging with a profitable niche means money. Two important key points to consider when you are finding profitable niches are:
1. The number of traffic
2. Cost per bid
In terms of traffic, general keywords such as ‘blogging’ would have a larger search value while long tail keywords such as ‘blog listings’ has lower search value. See the image below:

Do you think that the keyword ‘blogging’ is a good niche choice? With over 14,800 searches monthly and RM 6.08 (approx USD $1.85), it is a no brainer that it’s a good keyword to start with right?

Hell no! You’re wrong.

Choosing keywords like ‘blogging’ as a niche topic would be insane. If you are starting a blog, you’ll face enormous competitions from authority sites like Wikipedia and WPBeginner.

On the other hand, you might consider the keyword ‘blog listings’ as a good niche. With a small number of searches of 40 monthly, you could probably make a good living out of it right?

Again, you’re wrong.

From the image above, suggested bid shows nil (-) because there are no competition. While this could be a good sign, there is also very real possibilities that there is no bidders going for this niche.

In finding profitable niche, no bidder means close to zero chance of making a living out of Adsense or affiliate marketing (More information – Everything About Affiliate Marketing).

Actionable blogging tips: Finding a keyword which moderate number of searches and cost per bid would lead to a much better monetization.

Tools used to find a niche

Niche blogging is all about the right research and using the right keyword research tools will help you to find excellent niche ideas.

When it comes to keyword research, there are only two tools that really make the cut which are:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Long Tail Pro
While you are not obligated to use both, you would be able to find even better keywords faster and more accurate using both. More on this below.

Google Keyword Planner (free)

GKP in short, this is Google’s flagship and is definitely one of the most used tool in the world.

Advantages using Google Keyword Planner:
- Fast
- Accurate
- Did I mentioned absolutely free?
Disadvantages using Google Keyword Planner:
- Doesn’t show competition level and chance of ranking
As you can see above, GKP is a godly tool when it comes to finding profitable niche keywords. However, the downside is that it is not able to calculate the possibilities of fast ranking and the competition level.

Here’s a video tutorial on how you use Google Keyword Planner (read more):

Long Tail Pro (starts from $77)

LTP in short, this is one of the fastest keyword research tool that I have ever used to date.

Long Tail Pro makes the process of finding profitable niche in blogging as easy as 1, 2 and 3.

Advantages using Long Tail Pro:
- Detailed stats and results
- Multiple searches (up to 10 keywords at one time)
- Generate search volume, competition level and ranking opportunity under 3 minutes
- Extra $20 discount when you use this link
Disadvantages using Long Tail Pro:
- Long Tail Pro trial last for 7 days only
And here’s what it looks like on Long Tail Pro back end:

In just 3 simple steps, you will be able to find the right niche ideas for blogging.

So tell me. Is it a no-brainer that Long Tail Pro is a great tool?

Read my Long Tail Pro review or try it for free now. Download here.

How to make money blogging with the right keywords?

So, how do you really find a niche?

From the above, you’ve learn how to generate niche market ideas with both Google Keyword Planner and Long Tail Pro.

The process of finding niche market ideas consists of:
- The volume of search per month
- Specific geo-location
- Estimated cost per click
- Article writing
Volume of search per month

This is one process many bloggers do not take into consideration when it comes to searching for the right niche ideas.

Banging your luck on low search volume would easily affect your earnings while trying to rank on competitive keywords could easily land yourself in a pool dominated by the big boys.

Here are some guidelines which are best to incorporate with your niche blogging strategy:
- Search or keyword phrase lesser than 500 searches a month
- Competition for the specific keyword is low (competitors have lower PageRank and number of backlinks)
Specific geo-location targeting

One of the biggest mistakes done when it comes to finding a niche is everyone (yes, literally everyone) are targeting visitors from the United States.

Do you know that there are many locations which you target and still make a very decent earning from your niche blog?

While the earnings generated from United States bound traffic are good, there are others which you can monetize easier due to lower competition or challenge.

To name a few:
- United Kingdom
- Parts of Europe
- Australia
- Singapore
Debunking the myth of cost of click

Personally, I wouldn’t go for a niche or keyword which has less than $0.50 per click. If you’re planning to start a blog focusing on specific niche, make sure you’re targeting moderate to high paying keywords.

Here’s the deal:
- Minimum cost per click is $0.50
- Minimum traffic per month is 500
Let’s take math for a ride, shall we?

Assuming that you are getting 150 traffic per month and 85 (of the 150) would click on the ads, you’ll would probably be getting approximately $40 per month.

Make no mistake; the above is just an example.

When it comes to niche blogging, there are two ways you can go; high traffic and low cost per click (CPC) or low traffic and high cost per click.

Either way, there isn’t any basic instruction as it varies between niches, keywords, industry etc.

Just keep a mind on the above rule and you would easily make more money from your blogs.

Quality articles versus sheer numbers

Niche blogging is all about quality. Compared to the normal blogs, blogs on specific niches need to be more outstanding and informatics to ensure that you’re ranking well on search engines and readers will come back for more.

Finding niche market ideas is worth nothing if you’re not able to make money from it.

Once you have selected a good niche, start blogging constantly and find ways to build traffic.

Yes, not ways to make money but instead, building quality blog traffic. It is only possible to make money when you have sufficient traffic.

To give you an idea on the meaning of quality articles, here are some examples:
- Keywords are included in the title
- Keywords are used in the beginning and ending of the paragraph
- Keyword density is below 3% (this varies depending on self preference)
- Focus on facts only as informatics posts do get more traffic
Can you really make money online with niche blogging?

The short answer, yes! The longer answer would be, yes but with the right blogging strategy.

Through my experience, finding profitable niche blogging ideas is easy when you are using the right tools. The most challenging part is to develop the website and grow it into a huge success.

Before we wrap this up, here are some question for you:
1. Have you tried specific niche blogging?
2. If yes, how was it? If not, why are you not trying?
Use the comment form below and let’s discuss it further!
February 19, 2024